Sruti (music)
Encyclopedia
The shruti is a Sanskrit
term used in several contexts throughout the history of the Indian music. A shruti is the smallest interval of pitch the ear can detect.
The shadja-grama is given by the following division: Sa of four shrutis, Ri of three shrutis, Ga of two shrutis, Ma of four shrutis, Pa of four shrutis, Da of three shrutis and Ni of two shrutis. Bharata also describes an experiment to obtain the correct physical configuration of shruti in shadja grama, Sarana Chatushtai
.
The madhyama-grama is the same, but the panchama (Pa) has to be diminished by one shruti. That is, the panchama of madhyama-grama is lower than that of shadja-grama by one shruti according to Bharata. Shruti is only mentioned as a perceptual measure in the music of Bharata's time.
Shruti is better understood with the following explanation. In both the gramas, Ri is three shrutis away from Sa – there are three perceptible intervals between Sa and Ri. The third of these is called trishruti rishaba (Ri). Likewise, the second interval is called dvishruti rishabha, and the first ekashruti rishabha.
Notes at 9 and 13 shrutis from each other are mutually samvādi (consonant). The notes that are at the distance of 2 and 20 shrutis are mutually vivādi (dissonant). The remaining ones, at the distance between 2 and 20 shrutis, are called anuvādi (assonant).
The shruti table below shows the mathematical ratios considered to correspond to the system described by Bharata and Dattila, along with the comparable notes in common Western 12-TET tuning, and the names of the 22 shrutis provided by Śārñgadeva.
("mela") system, the grama system was no longer in use. Unlike the grama system, the mela system uses the same starting swara. it forms the scales by varying the intervals of the subsequent swaras, and does not specify a fixed interval for a swara in terms of shrutis. For example, the intervals of kakali-nishada and shuddha-madhyama would vary depending on the dhaivata and the gandhara that precede them, respectively. The interval of kakali-nishada would be of three different shruti values depending on whether shuddha, panca-sruti or shat-shruti-dhaivata preceded it. Thus shruti as a measure of interval is not fully utilized in the mela system.
, has several meanings. It is used by musicians in several contexts. For instance, the tamil term, "Oru kattai sruti" would mean that the tonic is set to the pitch C or the first key. The telugu term, "Sruti chesuko (శ్రుతి చేసుకో)" is a way to correspond with the accompanying artists to tune their instruments.
The term has also undergone a gross misunderstanding. In certain raagas, due to inflexions or gamakas on few of those 12 notes, the listeners perceive a sharpened or flattened version of an existing note. Few scholars have attempted to fit such perceived new tones into the non-contextual Bharata's 22 shrutis, which lead to confusion and controversy over 22 shrutis. It was also wrongly attributed to Bharata, who has proposed shruti in a completely different context.
There is scientific evidence which shows that these intermediate tones perceived in the contemporary rendition of a raaga does not hint at the existence of 22 shrutis. The number 22 is of no practical significance in the current performance of Carnatic and Hindustani music traditions. The phenomenon of intermediate tones is pursued as an active area of research in Indian Musicology, which says the number of perceptible intermediate tones may be less or even much more than 22. N. Ramanathan, a musicologist points it out and says that the idea of 22 shrutis is applicable only to the music system of Bharata's time.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
term used in several contexts throughout the history of the Indian music. A shruti is the smallest interval of pitch the ear can detect.
Contexts
To know the real meaning of shruti, it is important to know the various contexts in the history of Indian music where the term is used.Ancient period: Grama system
Bharata uses shruti to mean "the interval between two notes such that the difference between them is perceptible". He formulates jatis, which are classes of melodic structures. They are further grouped into two gramas – shadja-grama and madhyama-grama. The notes (svaras) are separated by intervals, which are measured in terms of shrutis.The shadja-grama is given by the following division: Sa of four shrutis, Ri of three shrutis, Ga of two shrutis, Ma of four shrutis, Pa of four shrutis, Da of three shrutis and Ni of two shrutis. Bharata also describes an experiment to obtain the correct physical configuration of shruti in shadja grama, Sarana Chatushtai
Sarana Chatushtai
The Sarana Chatushtai is the only experiment according to Bharata Muni to obtain the correct physical configuration of Śruti swara arrangement to Shadja Grama Notes on a musical instrument . The 22 Srutis are the only notes which can be useful for music in an “octave”...
.
The madhyama-grama is the same, but the panchama (Pa) has to be diminished by one shruti. That is, the panchama of madhyama-grama is lower than that of shadja-grama by one shruti according to Bharata. Shruti is only mentioned as a perceptual measure in the music of Bharata's time.
Shruti is better understood with the following explanation. In both the gramas, Ri is three shrutis away from Sa – there are three perceptible intervals between Sa and Ri. The third of these is called trishruti rishaba (Ri). Likewise, the second interval is called dvishruti rishabha, and the first ekashruti rishabha.
Notes at 9 and 13 shrutis from each other are mutually samvādi (consonant). The notes that are at the distance of 2 and 20 shrutis are mutually vivādi (dissonant). The remaining ones, at the distance between 2 and 20 shrutis, are called anuvādi (assonant).
The shruti table below shows the mathematical ratios considered to correspond to the system described by Bharata and Dattila, along with the comparable notes in common Western 12-TET tuning, and the names of the 22 shrutis provided by Śārñgadeva.
| Shrutis | 12-TET Note Note In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself.... s |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Ratio Interval ratio In music, an interval ratio is a ratio of the frequencies of the pitches in a musical interval. For example, a just perfect fifth is 3:2 , 1.5, and may be approximated by an equal tempered perfect fifth which is 27/12, 1.498... | Cents | Frequency Frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency... (Hz) |
Name | Frequency Frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency... (Hz) |
| Kṣobhinī | 1 | 0 | 261.6256 | C | 261.6256 |
| Tīvrā | 256/243 | 90 | | 275.6220 | C | 277.1826 |
| Kumudvatī | 16/15 | 112 | 279.0673 | ||
| Mandā | 10/9 | 182 | 290.6951 | D | 293.6648 |
| Chandovatī | 9/8 | 203 | 294.3288 | ||
| Dayāvatī | 32/27 | 294 | 310.0747 | D | 311.1270 |
| Ranjanī | 6/5 | 316 | 313.9507 | ||
| Raktikā | 5/4 | 386 | 327.0319 | E | 329.6275 |
| Raudrī | 81/64 | 407 | 331.1198 | ||
| Krodhā | 4/3 | 498 | 348.8341 | F | 349.2282 |
| Vajrikā | 27/20 | 519 | 353.1945 | ||
| Prasāriṇī | 45/32 | 590 | 367.9109 | F | 369.9944 |
| Prīti | 729/512 | 612 | 372.5098 | ||
| Mārjanī | 3/2 | 702 | 392.4383 | G | 391.9954 |
| Kṣiti | 128/81 | 792 | 413.4330 | G | 415.3047 |
| Raktā | 8/5 | 814 | 418.6009 | ||
| Sandīpanī | 5/3 | 884 | 436.0426 | A | 440.0000 |
| Ālāpinī | 27/16 | 906 | 441.4931 | ||
| Madantī | 16/9 | 996 | 465.1121 | A | 466.1638 |
| Rohiṇī | 9/5 | 1017 | 470.9260 | ||
| Ramyā | 15/8 | 1088 | 490.5479 | B | 493.8833 |
| Ugrā | 243/128 | 1110 | 496.6798 | ||
| Kṣobhinī | 2 | 1200 | 523.2511 | C | 523.2511 |
Ancient treatises on Indian classical music and performing arts
- Natya ShastraNatya ShastraThe Natya Shastra is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music. It was written during the period between 200 BC and 200 AD in classical India and is traditionally attributed to the Sage Bharata.The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope...
by BharataBharata MuniBharata was an ancient Indian musicologist who authored the Natya Shastra, a theoretical treatise on ancient Indian dramaturgy and histrionics, dated to between roughly 400 BC and 200 BC. Indian dance and music find their root in the Natyashastra... - DattilamDattilamDattilam is an ancient Indian musical text ascribed to the sage Dattila. It is believed to have been composed shortly after the Natya Shastra of Bharata, and is dated between the 1st and 4th c. AD....
by Dattila - BrihaddeshiBrihaddeshiBrihaddeshi is a Classical Sanskrit text on Indian classical music, attributed to Matanga Muni. It is the first text that speaks directly of the raga and distinguishes the classical and the folk . It also introduced sargam notation...
by MatangaMatangaMatanga may be:*the name of an elephant in Hindu mythology*the name of an Boddhisattva, protagonist of the Matanga Jataka*name of a Pratyekabuddha*name of the author of the Brihaddeshi, an early treatise on classical Indian music... - AbhinavabharatiAbhinavabharatiAbhinavabharati is a commentary on ancient Indian author Bharata Muni's work of dramatic theory, the Natyasastra. It is the only old commentary available on this work...
- Abhinava Gupta's commentary on Natya Shastra - Sangita Ratnakara by SarangadevaSarangadevaSarangadeva was the author of the Sangita Ratnakara, which is considered by many to be the most important work on music, after Bharata's Natya Shastra...
Medieval period: Mela system
By the time Venkatamakhi formulated the melakartaMelakarta
Melakarta is a collection of fundamental ragas in Carnatic music . Melakarta ragas are parent ragas from which other ragas may be generated. A melakarta raga is sometimes referred as mela, karta or sampurna as well.In Hindustani music the thaat is equivalent of Melakarta...
("mela") system, the grama system was no longer in use. Unlike the grama system, the mela system uses the same starting swara. it forms the scales by varying the intervals of the subsequent swaras, and does not specify a fixed interval for a swara in terms of shrutis. For example, the intervals of kakali-nishada and shuddha-madhyama would vary depending on the dhaivata and the gandhara that precede them, respectively. The interval of kakali-nishada would be of three different shruti values depending on whether shuddha, panca-sruti or shat-shruti-dhaivata preceded it. Thus shruti as a measure of interval is not fully utilized in the mela system.
Modern period: Controversy
The mela system still prevails. The term shruti in current practice of Carnatic musicCarnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
, has several meanings. It is used by musicians in several contexts. For instance, the tamil term, "Oru kattai sruti" would mean that the tonic is set to the pitch C or the first key. The telugu term, "Sruti chesuko (శ్రుతి చేసుకో)" is a way to correspond with the accompanying artists to tune their instruments.
The term has also undergone a gross misunderstanding. In certain raagas, due to inflexions or gamakas on few of those 12 notes, the listeners perceive a sharpened or flattened version of an existing note. Few scholars have attempted to fit such perceived new tones into the non-contextual Bharata's 22 shrutis, which lead to confusion and controversy over 22 shrutis. It was also wrongly attributed to Bharata, who has proposed shruti in a completely different context.
There is scientific evidence which shows that these intermediate tones perceived in the contemporary rendition of a raaga does not hint at the existence of 22 shrutis. The number 22 is of no practical significance in the current performance of Carnatic and Hindustani music traditions. The phenomenon of intermediate tones is pursued as an active area of research in Indian Musicology, which says the number of perceptible intermediate tones may be less or even much more than 22. N. Ramanathan, a musicologist points it out and says that the idea of 22 shrutis is applicable only to the music system of Bharata's time.